'It's not time to retreat it's time to reload': Sarah Palin attacks Obama on debt (as she plays it cool on White House intentions)

Voicing concerns: Sarah Palin has weighed into the deficit debate with her old adage: 'Now is not time to retreat, it's time to reload'

Sarah Palin has weighed into the deficit debate with her old adage: 'Now is not time to retreat, it's time to reload.'

Speaking on Fox News last night the former Republican vice presidential candidate also revealed she would announce her intentions for the White House in late August or early September.

During the interview Palin sent a very strong message to fellow Republicans on the debt ceiling crisis, currently the subject of intense White House talks.

'We cannot default, but we cannot afford to retreat right now either,' Mrs Palin said. 'Now is not time to retreat, it's time to reload.'

Palin used the phrase at a Southern Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans last year, saying: 'Don't retreat - reload, and that's not a call for violence.'

Last night she added: 'We reload with reality by giving facts and numbers to the American public so that those of us across the United States can start chiming in and letting our representatives know that we will not capitulate,' she added.

Mrs Palin also took umbrage with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's plan to raise the debt ceiling, which he issued earlier this week.

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'This plan of McConnell's, I think, makes no sense because it does cede power to our president and takes away that authority that is inherent in Congress to control the economic decisions that have to be made when it comes to debt,' she said.

Mrs Palin then said she believes she could win a campaign against Barack Obama, a sentiment first reported in a Newsweek cover story.

Speculation: Mrs Palin has refused to confirm if she will run for the presidency, but claims she could beat Barack Obama if she did

She would campaign for a candidate with 'good executive experience' and a 'servant's heart' who wasn't so 'obsessively partisan that they can't just do what's right.'

At the moment, though, she says she doesn't see that candidate in the Republican field.

Mrs Palin added she was thinking about offering herself up 'in the name of service,' confident that she has 'common sense, fiscally conservative, pro-private sector policy experience and ideas that can be put to good work for this country.'

The former Alaska governor has said she will announce her intention to run for the White House or not in late August or early September.

Speaking on Fox last night, she said: 'You know, August and September, you do have to start laying out a plan if you are to be one to throw your hat in the ring, so that's basically the time frame.

'I'm not wholly confident that we have that field set yet, that that one individual is in the field.'